Environmental Law

Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program and the Callahan Mine Superfund Site

Posted on March 31, 2011
Here is a guest post from Brian Jenkins at BrainTrack. The Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, made up of scientists and graduate students from Dartmouth college and Dartmouth Medical School, investigates the effects of heavy metals on human and...

Manslaughter Charge Explored in Gulf Spill

Posted on March 30, 2011
According to news reports yesterday, the USDOJ is considering manslaughter charges in the Gulf spill, along with possible perjury charges. I got to wondering how the federal government would bring manslaughter charges, which are typically state law charges, against the...

How Are Environmental Crimes Cases Different?

Posted on March 24, 2011
I am often asked what is so special or different about an environmental crimes case. There are a number of technical differences between what I would call ?regular? crimes and environmental crimes and general civil enforcement matters and environmental crimes...

USEPA?s 2012 Budget

Posted on February 16, 2011
On February 14, 2011, the Obama Administration outlined its proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year for the USEPA. The total proposed budget for the USEPA is $8,973,000,000.00 (that?s ?billion?). This budget proposal represents about a thirteen (13) percent decrease...

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Another Shipping Industry Worry

Posted on February 07, 2011
I have blogged in the past about the ?magic pipe? cases that the USDOJ and the USCG bring noting that the USDOJ has a ?practice group? handling all of these cases. Now, there is something else to worry about come...

The Environment Strikes Back?

Posted on February 03, 2011
This can be termed the ?Case Name? of the day. AIR v. EPA, out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/02/02/09-71383.pdf A thanks to James Tyre on the Solosez listerserv for the head?s up...

US v. Canal Barge ? A Venue Issue

Posted on January 08, 2011
This case came to my attention from David E. Roth at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham, Alabama: This is a synopsis of the US v. Canal Barge case decided January 7, 2011. A barge owned by Canal Barge...

Meet The Regulators ? Fred Burnside

Posted on December 10, 2010
Fred Burnside is retiring at the end of this month. He is currently the director of the agency's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training. I first met Fred back in October 1988. He was a somewhat junior case agent...

USEPA 2010 ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE RESULTS

Posted on December 07, 2010
The USEPA recently announced its annual enforcement and compliance results. In its 2010 fiscal year, the USEPA took enforcement and compliance actions that require companies to pay more than $110,000,000.00 in civil penalties. The USEPA also received commitments in these...

Subpoenas to a Non-Target

Posted on November 24, 2010
I am on a number of discussion lists as a lawyer. On one of them, the issue of responding to subpoenas by a non-target was discussed. Essentially, the issue posed was this: Non-target receives a subpoena for documents and it...

USDOJ Travel Policies

Posted on November 09, 2010
I was reading with some mild interest an article in the on-line version of the National Law Journal about the USDOJ report reviewing the travel expenses of the various US attorneys. You can see the article, with a link to...

Fugitive Arrested in the Dominican Republic

Posted on November 05, 2010
On November 20, 2008, Albania Deleon was convicted on numerous felony counts, including five counts relating to making false statements on matters within the jurisdiction of the USEPA. The trial lasted nearly three weeks. Deleon owned and operated Environmental Compliance...

Another Chicken Shit Case??

Posted on October 26, 2010
House of Raeford Farms Inc., a North Carolina poultry processor is facing criminal charges under the Clean Water Act alleging the illegal discharge of untreated wastewater into a sewer and municipal wastewater treatment plant. The poultry company and its plant...

A Shake-up at the Top

Posted on October 21, 2010
A tip of the hat to Steve Solow for sending this to me. 2. EPA: 2 top officials leave enforcement office after harsh review (10/21/2010) Emily Yehle, E&E reporter Two top officials are leaving U.S. EPA's criminal enforcement office in...

Toxic Sludge Boss Arrested

Posted on October 11, 2010
This was the headline on the MSN story on the recent environmental disaster in Hungary. The story continues: ?Police have detained the director of the aluminum company responsible for a flood of caustic red sludge that killed at least seven...

Delaware State Board?s Failure to Uphold Coastal Zone Act Program

Posted on October 03, 2010
This is a guest post from Alexis Bonari. You may contact her directly at alexisbonari@gmail.com. When the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Secretary Collin O?Mara issued a permit for a water treatment facility that included six mitigation...

The Importance of an Open Courtroom

Posted on August 30, 2010
On July 24, 2008, Braulio Agosto-Vega (?Agosto?) and Braulio Agosto Motors, Inc. (?Agosto Motors?) were found guilty of violating the criminal provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq. for allowing the unlawful discharge of...

The Texas Water Code

Posted on July 13, 2010
Sections 7.145 and 7.147 of the Texas Water Code are the felony and misdemeanor provisions most often used under Texas state law for environmental criminal prosecutions. The basic difference between the two is the requirement under Section 7.145 of proving...

Migratory Bird Treaty Act - U .S. v. Apollo Energies and Dale Walker

Posted on July 01, 2010
Apollo/Walker (decided June 30, 2010) is a Tenth Circuit case under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (?MBTA?) that provides a very good discussion of the mens rea requirement (or lack thereof). The MBTA provides that it a misdemeanor to ?pursue,...

Some Points and Statistics from USEPA CID

Posted on June 25, 2010
I was recently on a panel with Fred Burnside, the Director of the Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training for the USEPA. Some of the things he passed along to the attendees are worth passing on here. In response...

It Really Does Pay To Do Business in Texas

Posted on June 02, 2010
On May 7, 2009, I blogged about how it pays to do business in Texas (i.e. TCEQ fines were too low). On June 1, 2010, Andrew Kreighbaum wrote an article for The Texas Tribune that raised the same issue. Here...

Aggressive Prosecution or Abusive Tactics?

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Houston Police Department has a history of, to put it politely, aggressive investigations of alleged environmental criminal activity. Is it too aggressive? Some certainly think so. Just ask George McCall (?Mac?) Secrest, Jr. or Dean Blumrosen. These guys are...

Aggressive Prosecution or Abusive Tactics?

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Houston Police Department has a history of, to put it politely, aggressive investigations of alleged environmental criminal activity. Is it too aggressive? Some certainly think so. Just ask George McCall (?Mac?) Secrest, Jr. or Dean Blumrosen. These guys are...

Greek Maritime Officer Acquitted in Texas ?Magic Pipe? Case

Posted on April 29, 2010
On April 28, 2010, a Houston federal court jury found Greek maritime officer Ioannis Mylonakis not-guilty of charges that he engineered the dumping of oil tanker waste off of the Texas coast in early 2009. The jury rejected claims by...

Texas Water Code, Section 7.147

Posted on April 12, 2010
Just an FYI out there for all of you practitioners . . .. Section 7.147 of the Texas Water Code provides the following: (a) A person commits an offense if the person discharges or allows the discharge of any waste...

Earth Day 2010 and Global Awareness

Posted on April 05, 2010
This is guest post from Dan Grifen. You may contact him directly at d.grifen@gmail.com. Spring 2010 is approaching and there?s a lot of buzz around topics like the economy, taxation, global poverty, restoration in Haiti/Chile, and lastly, green awareness...

Another Motion

Posted on March 17, 2010
In virtually all environmental criminal trials, the case will have a significant discussion of ?hazardous waste.? The term ?hazardous waste? is defined in various places, including at 42 USC § 6903(5). In short, it is a legal definition. When you...

Hot Motions

Posted on February 26, 2010
Several years ago, I had a USEPA CID investigator tell me that the USEPA did not use tape recorders because there was no training provided in their use. At that time, the USEPA relied upon note-taking (and still does) to...

More Trial Coverage

Posted on February 11, 2010
On April 1, 2009, Tim DeChristopher was indicted for violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and making false statements in connection with the bidding process. A little background before the meat. In 1987, Congress enacted the...

Meet the Regulators - Andrew Goldsmith ? National Coordinator

Posted on January 18, 2010
On Friday, January 15, 2010, the USDOJ announced that Andrew Goldsmith was appointed as the new national coordinator for its criminal discovery initiatives a position that will allow the USDOJ to review and improve its criminal discovery and case management...

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